Goober, if you have proof that Iran is building a nuke, I suggest you send your evidence to the IAEA, since you obviously know something they don't. I'm sure they'll take you seriously. Just tell them you are an expert in nuclear physics and your links. I'm sure they'll be as impressed as I am.
Iran has some control over the inspections and who comes in their country. If IAEA officials abuse their position, lie or make misleading statements, Iran has every right to ask for a more impartial replacement.
Quote: ...Iran has banned two UN inspectors from visiting its nuclear facilities because it claims they filed false information on the country's controversial nuclear programme – a move seen as retaliation for the imposition of new sanctions.Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's atomic energy agency, said the unnamed inspectors had prematurely published a report he described as "untruthful", according to reports in state media today.
Iran has the right to ban UN personnel under the country's "safeguards agreement" with the International Atomic Energy Agency and has done so in the past. Salehi also stressed Iran's commitment to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which governs nuclear issues.
Yet observers and diplomats said there was no doubt the decision reflected anger over the sanctions imposed by the UN security council and that more retaliatory action was likely. Tehran has called UN resolution 1929 illegal and threatened action to protect its interests.
Iran had complained to the UN about a report issued at the end of last month, which said Tehran was preparing extra equipment to enrich uranium to higher levels and that it had stockpiled nuclear material. The IAEA report also showed that Iran was continuing with higher-level enrichment, failing to answer questions about possible military dimensions to its nuclear work, and failing to address concerns about undisclosed...
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Iran has enriched microscopic quantities of 20% enriched uranium. 20% is the NPT legally allowed limit. Their stated purpose for enriching uranium to the 20% NPT limit is medical research and medical isotope production, which is allowed by the NPT.
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Requirements for medical isotope producing reactors
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The difference between medical research and nuclear weapon research is quantity and quality. Medical research only requires extremely small amounts of HEU, a tiny fraction of what would be needed to construct a nuclear weapon. From the above links, it sounds like the entire world's supply of medical isotopes and all the accumulated waste products from all the medical isotope producing reactors over 50 years combined could be processed into the components required to produce a single nuclear weapon.
As long as Iran's 20% HEU work remains limited in quality/quantity and remains closely supervised, it remains NPT compliant and a non-threat.
I would be concerned if Iran started stockpiling significant amounts of 20% EU, since it would cut the processing time to produce 90% HEU (bomb quality) in half. But its speculative to write a report which makes this possible purpose sound like a proven fact. Currently Iran has only produced microscopic quantities of 20% EU, not even close to the amount required to run a medical research reactor, let alone be further refined to produce a nuclear weapon. If and when they get their medical isotope producing reactor going, Iran would never have a valid reason to keep enough 20% EU on hand to make a bomb with further enrichment.
Speculation about where this program could lead is just that... speculation. A report which makes speculation sound like fact qualifies at a minimum as misleading if not a deliberate lie.
I see more than one possibility regarding Iran's attempts to refine microscopic amounts of 20% EU.
Sure Iran could be planning to build nukes with it. I'm not an expert in nuclear physics like Goober, so please correct me if I'm wrong Goober. I don't think its possible to build a nuke with 20% EU, let alone using only microscopic quantities of 20% EU. Could you post a link which shows that its possible to build a nuclear bomb using microscopic amounts of 20% EU? Don't forget to
cc the IAEA.
Its also possible Iran's enemies have infiltrated the ranks of the IAEA in attempt to turn the it into another UNSCOM.
Remember this news story?
" the UNSCOM spying reported by the papers was accepted as fact by other outlets, and even defended; Experts say it is naive to believe that the United States and other governments would not have used the opportunity presented by the U.N. commission to spy on a country that provoked the Persian Gulf War in 1991 and that has continued to tangle with U.S. and British forces," USA Today reported (3/3/99).
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A very good chance Iran was justified tossing those two IAEA inspectors out of their country. Meanwhile the other IAEA inspectors in Iran have continued their inspections unimpeded. Or are you saying that these were the only 2 IAEA inspectors in Iran and that they have not yet been replaced. Talk about your cutbacks.
Then again it could be Iran playing games in response to NPT violating sanctions and other activities by their adversaries.
Its also possible that Iran is sending a hint that if their adversaries continue to violate the NPT by attempting to thwart Iran's NPT guaranteed right to possess peaceful nuclear technology that they'll end the inspections. I guess Iran has to judge if allowing the IAEA into Iran continues to serve any purpose... The inspections which have gone on for years now and found nothing except evidence supporting Iran's peaceful nuclear program, have not resulted in lifting of sanctions and other punitive measure. where's Iran's incentive to allow the inspections? If Iran stops the inspections what is the US going to do? Impose economic sanctions???
In other words, the US has no carrot on the end of their stick, all they have is a stick...
Like I said... Show some concrete evidence that Iran is building nukes, because you obviously know something no one else does.
All I see is a dispute, speculation and an allegedly misleading report, not proof of nukes or even an intention to make nukes.
Regarding Iran's ability to hide a nuclear weapon production facility:
Facilities required to enrich enough uranium to the required quality to build nuclear weapon components would be about the size of a paper mill or an oil refinery. It would employ thousands of highly trained people, consume and produce megawatts of energy and leak easily detected by-products into the air and/or water. In other words, it would be pretty difficult to hide, but not impossible. ( Israel did just that in the 1960's, but unlike Iran, Israel had no IAEA inspectors scouring the country with sophisticated monitoring equipment)
The IAEA has been all over Iran and found nothing to support allegations that Iran is building nukes. It appears the best Iran's adversaries have been able to do so far is get a few of their people on the inspection teams to write an allegedly false or misleading report, so the news can spin nothing to sound like something and convince the gullible that "absence of proof" is "proof of existance". That's pathetic. I hope this isn't an indication that the US and other nations will eventually pervert the IAEA like they did with UNSCOM.
Speaking of UNSCOM, how is the search for Iraq's WMD stockpiles going? Remember how Iraq's tossing out the UNSCOM weapon inspectors proved Iran was really accumulating WMD stockpiles. You'll have to remind me again. What happened to the stockpiles our news told us Iraq possessed?
Last edited by earth_as_one; Aug 11th, 2010 at 02:33 AM..
